


Home for Christmas

by Alice_h



Series: A Place of Our Own [8]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Christmas, F/F, Meeting the Parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:01:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21847057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alice_h/pseuds/Alice_h
Summary: Adora's parents invite her and Catra for Christmas. She wants to believe they've changed - but have they?
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Series: A Place of Our Own [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1511849
Comments: 21
Kudos: 129





	Home for Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> AKA the story where Catra just goes around dropping truth bombs!
> 
> This one goes out to anyone who has to spend the holiday season with people who don't accept who they are - you're awesome and I love you <3
> 
> No glaring content warnings, but there is mention of Adora's parents being shitty in the past as well as a blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference to self harm.

It had been a long, frustrating day for Catra, so by the time she had pushed the door to their apartment open, she was ready to fall face first onto the sofa and switch off. She removed her coat, throwing it roughly towards the rack in a failed attempt to be tidy, then stomped down the hallway into the living room.

“Hey babe, how was work?” Adora was sat in a chair, looking up from her phone as her girlfriend entered and promptly laid across their couch.

“Pretty crappy. Glad to be home,” her response was short, and her exhaustion was evident. If Adora wasn’t home, she probably would have taken a nap, but she knew her girlfriend would have told her off for being lazy if she did.

“It’s good you’re home. I, uh…My mum rang today,” Adora was almost mumbling, slightly worried that she would get a negative reaction, “She wants us to go to her for Christmas dinner.”

“Nope,” Catra replied without even looking up. Having heard all about her girlfriend’s parents, none of it particularly complimentary, she wasn’t even going to discuss accepting the invitation. They were both better off without that woman trying to be part of their lives.

Adora understood the blunt response, “Please, Catra? I think they are starting to come around, she seemed fine when I said I was bringing you.”

“Oh, it’s all fine now. But what about when we’re actually there stood in front of that woman and she has to face the _horror _of seeing her daughter in a happy relationship with…. Dun dun duuuun, another woman?”

“Look, it’s not just that,” Adora sighed, “I _want _to repair things – despite everything she’s done, she is still my mother. And I think she’s genuinely trying to be more accepting of me. I want to give her that chance to actually be a parent.”

“You really think it’s that easy? That she calls you out of the blue and everything is fixed?”

“Yes? No? I don’t know… Maybe I’m just hoping that everything will magically be fine again. I know that’s impossible, but I want to at least try, is that so wrong of me?” She desperately wanted to make peace with her parents, despite everything they had done in the past, “It’s just...after Angella died, it made me think about how I’d feel if they did. I don’t want to have the same regrets Glimmer did.”

“Okay, I get it! You all have parents who didn’t leave you!”

Adora reached across and held her Catra’s hand in her own, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to… “

“Eh, I shouldn’t get angry at you,” she gave a short cynical laugh, “I guess we both grew up in abusive environments.”

Her girlfriend jerked backwards away from her, a look of disbelief plastered across her face, “Whoa, whoa whoa! My parents weren’t abusive.”

Catra raised an eyebrow. Every time Adora mentioned her family, she would inevitably make reference to something invalidating or hurtful they said to her – usually oblivious to the way it had left a lasting impact. It was clear to Catra they treated her worse than her sister, but they always did it so affably that she didn’t think Adora even realised it was happening.

“They weren’t Catra!” she protested, “They never hit me or shouted abuse at me or anything like that. Don’t say stuff like that.”

“I didn’t know the criteria for being a good parent was that low. Heck, even _I _could manage that,” Catra responded with sarcasm, “Look, I only know what you told me, but it always sounds like they were playing you off against your sister.”

“They didn’t! Mara is the clever one out of us, _of course_ I wanted to be like her. They helped me to do well at school, just like she did. And even if they were playing me off against her, that was a long time ago. I just want to start over again with them – we’re all adults now, can’t we try?”

Catra sighed, “Alright, I guess so. But don’t just let them back in like nothing’s happened, I don’t want you to get hurt again. And I will _not_ pretend to be someone I’m not just to impress them.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less,” Adora grinned. Catra’s sense of self was something she admired about the girl; she knew exactly who she was and never hid it from people. Adora completely understood her girlfriend’s reluctance – if she was honest, she had the same fears – but seeing the way Glimmer had spiralled after losing her mother and realising she would never be able to make amends had started Adora thinking about the relationship with her own mother. She didn’t want to be troubled by the same issues about leaving it broken and having never tried to repair it.

“Also if they start trying to play charades, I’m leaving.”

Adora giggled, “Babe, you might be my girlfriend but if they even _mention _charades, I will sacrifice you for my own escape.”

“Bitch!” Catra laughed.

* * *

A crisp December morning heralded the big day. Catra followed an apprehensive Adora up the steps to the front door, the blonde girl unsure of the welcome they would receive. It was the first time she had seen her parents for almost two years, their last meeting having been at a birthday party for a family friend. The atmosphere between them there was frosty, to say the least, but Adora was able to spend enough time with other people to avoid them. Today, however, there was no escaping.

“Here goes…” Adora pressed the button to ring the bell, trying to judge the right amount of time to hold her finger down – enough to be heard, not so long that it came across as impatient. The door opened a few seconds later.

“Adora!” an older woman answered in a singsong voice and immediately wrapped her arms around the girl, “You must be freezing, come in, come in.”

“Hi mum,” she gently pushed herself out of the embrace, her face remaining stoic.

The woman craned her neck around, looking down her nose at the girl behind her, “I suppose you’re Adora’s friend Catra?”

“Girlfriend,” she corrected, “But yes, that is me. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Yes,” Adora’s mother replied flippantly, “I’m her mother, Teresa. Do come in, the open door is causing a draft.”

The cold reception was exactly as Catra expected, and she shot Adora a glance that said ‘I told you so’, receiving a pleading look in response. The couple walked into the house, taking their shoes off and leaving their coats on the track that Teresa indicated, before being shown into the living room. It was a space that appeared to have changed little since the 1980s, with flowery wallpaper covering every wall and a turquoise three-piece suite flanked by dark cherry wood coffee tables. An older man that Catra assumed to be Adora’s father sat in one of the chairs, and a woman in her late 20s read a magazine in the other. Both looked up as the guests arrived in.

Adora introduced them, “This is my dad, Robert and my sister Mara. Mara, Dad, this is my, uh, friend Catra.”

The greetings they gave went unanswered by Catra, who felt as though she had been stabbed in the back by Adora’s choice of words. No wonder she expected her parents to be more accepting if she was going to change who she was into the person they wanted her to be. Catra had feared that it would happen, that Adora’s single-minded desire for reconciliation would outweigh everything else.

“Mara is a lawyer,” Teresa boasted, “She’s always had a strong sense of right and wrong, you see, we always knew she would be the successful one. I assume you’re still selling clothes, Adora?”

“It pays the bills for now,” her answer was slightly nervous as she tried to find the right phrasing to please her mother, “I’ve applied for a lot of potential jobs I can use my degree for though. It’s not going to be long, I’m sure.”

The older woman clicked her tongue, “And Catra, do you have a job?”

“Of course, yeah,” she was still reeling from the ‘friend’ incident, “Just a call centre for tech support.”

“And do you have plans to do anything worthwhile?”

Catra laughed, “It’s kinda hard to do much when you’ve be-“

“She’s still thinking about her options,” Adora loudly interrupted. This was decidedly not the time for her girlfriend to start talking about her past – and she knew her mother would not take it well, “Still plenty of time to decide.”

Teresa mumbled in a way Catra interpreted as disapproval before asking her husband to help her in the kitchen. Once they had left the room, Catra couldn’t hold it in any longer, “What the hell, Adora? You’re going to throw me under the bus to get your mother’s approval, is that it?”

Her girlfriend half-heartedly put an arm around here, “I’m sorry, it’s nerves. I’m just worried I’ll say something wrong and they’ll kick me out. _Again._”

“They really are sorry about that,” Mara put her magazine down as she got the couple’s attention, “Not that they’ll ever say it, you know what they’re like.”

“Probably should,” mumbled Catra.

“They’re good people, Catra,” Adora’s sister had heard her muttering and wanted to stand up for them, “They’re just a bit old-fashioned, with some outdated ideas of what people should do. Or be, in Adora’s case. I won’t defend what they did, but I understand why.”

“Wow… I guess you’re just as bad.”

Adora grabbed her arm, “Catra!”

“No, come on, Adora,” she pulled away, “She was the favourite and she wouldn’t do anything to put that in danger. You should have stood up for her, Mara! It’s all very well saying you don’t defend them, but did you say anything when they stopped her seeing her school friends when she didn’t get the same grades you did? Did you help when she hurt herself because of the stress of meeting their expectations? And where were you when they kicked Adora out onto the street?!”

Mara was stunned, “I, uh…”

“We got you something, Adora!” Her mother chirped as she and Robert re-entered the room, oblivious to the conversation they had interrupted. She pushed a festive-looking gift box towards her daughter, “I hope you like it. And I’m sorry Catra, we didn’t get you anything.”

“Don’t worry, neither did _my _parents,” she snarked, chuckling darkly to herself about how that was technically true.

Adora gasped theatrically as she opened the box and unfolded a hideous baby pink cardigan. Catra had never seen her girlfriend wear anything like that, and she knew Adora found it as disgusting as she did. But there was no chance of her telling her mother that.

“Oh, I love it!” Adora exclaimed enthusiastically, sitting down to let it rest on the coffee table in front of her, “That’s really nice, thank you Mum.”

“I’m glad you like it darling,” the smile Teresa gave her made Adora feel as though things were genuinely improving. Sure, she found the cardigan ugly, but it was the first present she had received from her parents in several years and that more than made up for the fact that she would likely never wear it.

Catra took a seat next to her girlfriend, “I can’t believe it’s taken this long to meet you all. I mean, I’d have thought we’d have met when Adora was critically injured in hospital, but… I guess I must have missed you.”

“We’ve not been that close recently,” Teresa explained reticently. She knew Catra was trying to cause trouble, but she was determined not to rise to it, “But I think things can change now. Adora seems a lot more mature.”

“She is,” Catra placed her hand on Adora’s leg, smiling at her girlfriend, “We’ve been through kind of a lot these last couple of years.”

Her father cleared his throat loudly, staring at Catra’s hand throughout. Adora noticed his eyeline and got the message, shuffling a little further away. Her girlfriend looked over at her, eyebrows raised in disbelief. There was only so much of Adora betraying her to make her parents happy that she could take.

Catra stood up and huffed, “I’ve had enough of this. Adora and I are together, get over it.”

“Excuse me?! How dare you!” Teresa scolded, incensed that someone would talk to her like that, especially a virtual stranger in her own home.

“How dare _you! _Your daughter is a brilliant young woman – she’s clever, she’s determined and she’s a kind and caring person. But guess what else? She’s gay. And you’re too narrow minded to look beyond that.”

Adora’s mother took a few deep breaths, trying to keep the anger she was feeling under control, “We may have reacted poorly in the past, but we have no problem with Adora’s lifestyle now.”

“HA!” Catra couldn’t help the laughter escaping, “Well you could have fooled me. Don’t say ‘girlfriend’, don’t touch each other, don’t be gay around us… It sounds like you have a hell of a problem with it. You’re homophobic!”

“Nonsense,” the woman’s voice raised, “We’re a traditional family. We’re just not used to this whole… gay thing…”

“’Gay thing’?! Woooowwww… You know, I told Adora she shouldn’t come, but she convinced me that you were trying to change. I guess that she got that wrong.”

“QUIET!” Robert roared, bringing the conflict to a sudden stop, “You are causing a scene, Catra, and I think you should leave.”

“Gladly,” she scoffed, “Come on, Adora, we’re going.”

“No,” her mother said firmly, “She’s staying, we are spending Christmas together as a family. Please get your coat, Catra.”

She rolled her eyes, ready to leave alone, but was pulled back by her girlfriend. Adora briefly glanced at their entwined hands, before smiling at Catra and turning to her family, “No, I’m not staying. Not if my girlfriend can’t be here.”

“Sit down, Adora,” her father chastised her, rolling his eyes, “Don’t get involved in her little tantrum.”

“Catra was right. You aren’t ever going to change and I was a fool for thinking that you could ever accept me as I am. All my life, I’ve never been good enough for you – not like the golden child, Mara, who you _constantly _made me feel inferior to. Mara does this, Mara does that, when will you be like Mara? Well I will never be like her. I am Adora. I am a lesbian and this young woman next to me is the love of my life – and if you want me to be a part of yours, you need to accept her as well.”

Teresa stared at her in disbelief, “Adora, we don’t mind your lifestyle, we-“

“That’s it,” Adora nodded and waved her finger at her mother, “That’s exactly the sort of thing. It’s not a ‘lifestyle’, it’s a part of who I am. And if you think that ‘I don’t mind’ is the same as ‘I accept’, you need to take a long hard look at yourself. Now before we leave, I just have one more thing to do, and I hope you _hate _it.”

She put her arm around Catra’s shoulder, pulling her surprised girlfriend towards her, and their lips met. It was a rough kiss of defiance, and Adora was determined to leave her parents in no doubt as to how much she loved Catra. It wasn’t a phase, it wasn’t confusion, it wasn’t the influence of her friends. This was love, nothing less – whether they understood it or not.

“Merry Christmas,” she left the room to its stunned silence, hand in hand with her girlfriend. No further words were exchanged as the two of them wrapped themselves back up for the bitter winter weather and slammed the door behind them. Adora walked confidently away from the house, stopping only when she was halfway down the street.

“Oh my god, I can’t believe I just did that,” she bent over double as the realisation that she had almost certainly ruined any chance of reconciliation.

Catra halted next to her, wide-eyed, “Are you joking? That was amazing, Adora! You have no idea how proud I am that you stood up to them.”

“I just… Oh my god I completely ruined everything. I have totally fucked it up.”

“No! They were never going to appreciate you, not unless you became a clone of your sister. And straight.”

“Don’t even joke about me being straight, that’s horror movie stuff right there,” Adora let out a tiny laugh, which lingered in the air as they both fell silent for a moment.

“I’m sorry I shouted at them,” Catra apologised quietly, gripping Adora’s hand, “But they deserved it.”

“It’s fine,” she pushed a strand of hair from her face, “Honestly it’s about time someone did.

“I know, but… I’m sorry your family are dicks.”

Adora stood up straight, a little fire returning to her eyes, “Actually, my family are awesome. Teresa and Robert might be the people who created me, but my family is you. It’s Glimmer and Bow. It’s Mermista and Seahawk and Scorpia. Just because we’re not related by blood, it doesn’t make us any less a family.”

“That is one fucked-up family,” Catra snickered, “But I suppose you’re right.”

“Maybe one day my parents will come around, but I’m not going to put any effort in to try and change them. They’re the ones who need to do that. Until then, I’ll be with my real family – the ones that actually love and support me.”

“We do, and we always will. Happy Christmas, Adora,” she planted a kiss on the girl’s cheek.

“Happy Christmas, Catra.”

**Author's Note:**

> So this might be the last one for the year. I have a She-Ra Winter Gift Exchange fic to work on, and the next part of this series will probably need to be written entirely before I start posting it (you'll see why - it's dramatic AF).
> 
> Happy Holidays and all the best for 2020!


End file.
